Hey ya’ll, I’m Jess from Roots & Refuge Farm
Welcome to a place that feels like home. A small farm with a big family. We hope you’ll pull up a chair, grab some coffee and visit awhile.
There was a time that all I wanted in the world was a little farm where I could raise my family and grow our food. Now, that is exactly what exists outside my door. In watching it unfold, a new dream was formed in my heart – to share this beautiful life with others and teach them the lessons we’ve learned along the way. Welcome to our journey, friend. I am so glad you’re here.
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WHERE TO FIND US (Some of the links here are affiliate links. If you purchase through our links we’ll receive a small commission but the price remains the same – OR BETTER – for you! Be sure to check for any mentioned discount codes.)
– Our Website: https://rootsandrefuge.com
– Sign up for our newsletter: https://rootsandrefuge.com/yt-signup
– Join our Patreon to get early access to podcasts and other information, plus monthly LIVES with me and Miah: https://patreon.com/rootsandrefuge
– Abundance+ (Grab a FREE 7-day trial): https://rootsandrefuge.com/yt-wilder-still
– Shop our Stickers & Shirts: https://rootsandrefuge.com/yt-shop
– Order my first book, “First Time Gardener”: https://rootsandrefuge.com/yt-ftgbook
– Order my second book, “First Time Homesteader”: https://rootsandrefuge.com/first-time-homesteader-yt
– Instagram: www.instagram.com/roots_and_refuge
– Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rootsandrefugefarm
– Email Us: rootsandrefuge@yahoo.com
– To drop us a line:
PO Box 4239
Leesville SC 29070
– To have a gift sent to our house from our Amazon wishlist: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/SFA0IZHZRCOZ?ref_=wl_share
– To support us through PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/jessicasowards
-The Music in this video is by my friend Daniel Smith: http://instagram.com/phillip_daniel_smith/
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PRODUCTS WE LOVE – You’ve probably heard me talk about these things a million times, so here’s where you can order them (and get a discount with my code!):
– Greenstalk Vertical Gardens (Use code “ROOTS10” for $10 off your order): https://rootsandrefuge.com/yt-greenstalk
– Squizito Tasting Room (Use code “ROOTS” for 10% off your order): https://rootsandrefuge.com/yt-squizito
– ButcherBox: https://rootsandrefuge.com/butcherbox
– Growers Solution: https://rootsandrefuge.com/growers-solution
– Neptune’s Harvest Fertilizer: https://rootsandrefuge.com/neptunes-harvest-fertilizer
#rootsandrefuge
47 Comments
Ask Morgan Gold
Yes I tote water and have heated water troughs
we are in Middle TN and had extreme cold this week- we purchased Freeze Miser- brand- hose connector to prevent the faucets from breaking – they were awesome
we still have temps near 0
— we came from Northern Illinois- we toted water to the animals— we didn't have gardens in winter- it was dangerous cold– extreme snow- we canned everything before cold came to have food over the winter-
we have our 10th child graduating this year( last one)– ya– WHEW– so many memories– so many joys and tears- I understand—– a million hugs to you
Watch any of Morgan Gold’s chore videos for how you deal with COLD watering chores.
Fern gully all the way…
Avocado Kitty is so cute! What is a yearbook add? I’ve never heard of that.
Tree star
We go out break the ice and such so they can get a drink 2 to 3 times a day and if you get fancy buy thing warms water in a container so it doesn't freeze
Congratulations momma !!!
We have had -30c s in Finland. And I don't think anyone with a homestead farms here during the winter months. Some cucumbers and tomatoes come from southern finland greenhouse farms.
The ground will thaw in may.
It is 40 below where I live right now. The cows stay out. A contentious farmer will ues the hay and straw bails to make walls around the winter pens to keep the wind at bay. There are submersible water heaters that go in the tanks to keep them open. You will find this funny, those heaters are also used to warm up baptismal tanks. The chickens stay inside. Water is carried to them. People will use heated dog bowls to keep chicken water flowing, although they will choose snow over water at times.
All a water and sewer lines are buried at lease 6 feet under ground. I had to redo my septic system a few years ago. I hired a directional driller to run the waste water line. It was the best decision I made on that project. If you have directional drillers in your area it would be worth while inquiering.
9:51 Utah here. Yup, we haul waters :/ frost free spigots are on the list. We had hoped to get them done before winter. Now the ground is frozen, so we have to wait until at least spring.
I have a plug in chicken water in the coop and a feeder but unless it's really windy and overcast my chickens still roam the yard. My geese have a heated dog water bowl I have to fill first thing in the morning and after lunch cause geese like splashing and their pool is frozen solid.
I grew up on a farm in Michigan at a time when winter temperatures frequently reached -22 F. We hauled water in five gallon buckets between the house and the barn. Each five gallon bucket weighed forty pounds. It was actually easier to carry two buckets at a time, because one bucket would throw us off balance, and there was the danger of splashing water on our legs. I can’t begin to describe the misery of being wet at -22 F. I can tell you it is painful, and dangerous. However, we had livestock in the barn, and they needed water, so it had to be done, no matter the temperature or the snow depth. Sometimes my sister and I would take turns breaking a path through snow above our knees. When it was bitterly cold, we could walk on top of the snow. We kept the manure in the barn until spring, because it would generate heat, and keep the barn warmer. That, combined with the animals’ body heat, made the barn fairly comfortable. We would warm up in the barn before returning outside. The number of times we had to repeat the process depended on how many animals we had. Fortunately, our livestock numbers were lowest in the winter! Unfortunately, our summers were not that pleasant! July temperatures were frequently in the 90s, and sometimes over 100 F. Then there was the humidity. Michigan is surrounded by water on three sides. It gets downright sticky here, and we didn’t have air conditioning. At least we could use hoses in the summer, and if any water spilled, it was refreshing! But summer was also haying season. Don’t get me started on that!
Break a lot of ice.
What do you do to water your farm lol we haul buckets and buckets of water from the house. It’s a pain in the ass but it gets the job done
Here in n. Idho and n. e. Wash. The pipes are 3 ft deep or more. And there are water tank heaters. They float on top and keep the watwr from totally freezing. And frost free hydrants for outdoor water. And we used to carry warm water a couple times a day for chickens and rabbits.
I am feeling the bittersweet grief feelings. My oldest is a junior and I'm ready to see her next chapter but not ready to give up the current one. 🥹 It is such a strange feeling being on both ends of it at the same time. I'm excited for my next chapter after but I'm not ready to loose my babies to adulthood yet, I don't feel ready and I don't feel like they are truly ready yet but they still want to fly. 💔🥰😥😬 My mom grief is in overdrive most days feeling time slipping away and the urgency to make as many more memories and prepare them now like yesterday for the best future ahead.
OMGoodness I love the animals!
There’s heat “tape” you can run down the pipes. Many well setups are in ground, above ground have a pump house & you can heat it with underground lines out to your buildings. I don’t have a farm, but I grew up with them and many well houses are built with/beside the barn.
5 gallon buckets and a sled😂
I am very inconvenienced right now by how cold it is where I live right now and it makes me never want to over winter animals ever again 😂 it’s strange because summers always feel like a lot of work but winters lately have felt like even more work! Lol , glad I can chuckle about it now because three days ago I was planning to move to Mexico!
Yes keep live stock inside and thank god for heated watering tanks… but sometimes they fail you or the power
goes out and your back to the stone
ages of yes hauling water pales ever few hours for them and then bring the old one in to thaw.
A dear friend of mine sent me a picture of one of her chickens roosted on the back of her kitchen chair in her house ( her chickens are kinda wild
and won’t ever go in their coop, apparently even when it’s 20 below) and just one chicken was by her front door asking to get warm… I about died laughing at the sight of this photo. Her husband working at the table and her chicken roosted and her dog keeping a watchful eye on the over night visitor.
But me personally, I am a very frost tender flower and when it hits -25 f I go into power down hibernation mode.
Dreaming of life in the south…. But honestly your summers might kill me too 😂 where is the happy medium in comfort year round?!?!
South Central MT here. -45 last week. Yes pir chicken stay in their coop at thos temp. We water then 3 times a day when it is back to zero the coop door opens and we have a run thays cattle panels covered with last year's greenhouse plastic. Wind free and not wet chickens are fine!!! O would love your shoulder seasons… but not the heat of your summer Our area goes from 110 to -45
You have literally become a part of my homeschool routine! 🤣 I always watch your channel first thing in The morning and now it has become a part of my morning basket lol my youngest is 10 years old and my oldest is almost 18🥰 both boys have grown up watching your channel over the last few years….. me longer🥰 my youngest gets so inspired when he sees Benjamin.
I have an electric water heater platform for my chickens, I set the aluminum waterer on it and it keeps the water from freezing. It automatically turns on when the temp gets to 30 degrees it’s been down to -37. -40 and it’s never froze. Zone 4
Barn cats get heated dog water bowls. We just have to chip away the ice a few times a day for the cows we have also used livestock tank heater.
Growing up I did 4-h in Montana and we had steers that we kept about 200ft from our house. In the winter I would fill two 5gal buckets at a time in the bathtub and carry them out to the steers every 3-4days. I had to fill up their 100 gal water tank completely at least once per week. By the end of multiple trips the outside part of my pants would always be frozen from the water that I spilled while walking on the uneven snow/ice covered path to the steers.
We build a wooden box with a detachable half lid around the water tank itself. The box was insulated with thick 3-5 inch foam. We kept a heater in the water also. This is the only way we could keep their water from not freezing.
I did this for a minority of my childhood winter once I was strong enough to carry the buckets. In all honesty I would do it again for the memories. Otherwise I would prefer a frost free hydrant with heat trace following the pipe back into the ground so it doesn’t freeze.
The rooster showdown is hilarious! Love it!
We've been down to -30°C and for the goats, we just carry hot water out to them in buckets (we only have 6 goats). The chickens really manage just fine eating snow. When I learnt that I stopped carrying water for them. We used to have a water heater keeping their container contents in a liquid state.
Loved the rooster showdown! It's a goal of mine to have chickens (and at least one rooster!) someday.
The water on the leaf makes me think of various Miyazaki films. And I'm a GenXer.
Nice to know that I am not alone in being 'food suggestable'.
I live in Colorado zone 5b at 7200 ft. Our average last frost date is 5/15-5/20 and first frost date is 9/15-9/20. We have lots of sunshine but winter is cold.
You have heated water sources for outside animals. Water pipes are below the frost line in the ground. Outdoor water access are all frost free hydrants.The animals grow thicker hair coats, have shelters and have increased feed rations. No plants grow above ground after the ground freezes. The snow insulates the tree, shrub, and perennial roots. No outside gardening without a heated greenhouse. We water all outside hardy plants until the ground freezes.
I traveled in the south one summer and thought I was going to die with humidity. I have also lived in Arizona which is beastly hot in the summer but not humid.
We are so blessed to have a variety of climate choices in the US so everyone can choose what suits them best.
I thought that one chicken was missing a leg till it took a walk! 🤣
Here in Finland our chickens are inside their insulated coop most of the winter, they have a run but they refuse to put their feet in snow. We have a heater close to the roost, I know many use a composting deep litter to create heat. This winter the water has frozen once, it has been a really cold winter with -20°C for a few weeks, so I just took it inside to thaw and gave them a spare waterer. With a really small flock it's not a problem to carry water since they have a big waterer with nipples so the water is changed about once a week. If I had a bigger flock (=a bigger coop) I would build an insulated one or have a warm room with water and pipes buried around 2 m deep.
The sprinklers are shut off and blown out. I tote water from the spigot that comes off the house for chickens and ducks, they get higher protien feed cause winters here are harshand long. I use dunking deicers, metal double walled wateres on heat bases. Heater panels, heat lamps, and good draft free coop with deep bedding. I live in SE Idaho. I don't have a green house , my garden is dormant and under snow. I know some around here over winter with deep straw for root vegetables. I might try that one year. I'm going into my 3rd year here. Still learning and establishing my garden and home stead skills. I came from so cal and it's quite different 😊.
Beautifully shot video Jess ❤❤❤
Lovely content as usual 🥰
Life is short. Eat the beets. 😂
Thankyou for todays video Jess. You have your garden spark back now that your are busy in the garden again. Noone can prepare you for that sense of loss when the children no longer need you in the same way. I have six children and it hurt bad with each one, just like a loss, Eventually you and your grown up child find a new relationship ,as they follow their own journey. I have spend many a day wondering what on earth my purpose is now that the last one is just about to follow her dreams. Thankfully i have the little patch of growing to keep me busy. I am so looking forward to the Spring and getting seeds started (i already have a few on the window sill!) xx
Grown ups now stand where my preterm tiny babies used to be. We unfortunately don't get the grief warning. At times we can't wait for our children to become independent and when they do it crushed us. We long for the days of laughter and tiny feet running around, the mommy kiss my boo-boo and the just one more need time sorry. I'm so proud of my kids and the loves they are creating but man does coming home to a quiet empty house break my heart. Thank you Jess for sharing your family and your farm with all of us
I live in Sweden, and here all farm animals are kept inside their stables and barns in the nighttime, and some of them all the time, and have water sometimes in electrically heated automatic water cups, that does not freeze, in their, stalls, other times the water is carried from an indoor water spigot in buckets, out to them. When I worked at a riding school many years ago, and it got down to minus 30 degrees celsius, one winter, the horses only got to go out in the fields for a few hours , because the were needed back in the stable so the waterline in the stable would not freeze.
One nice thing about having two different age groups in our children is that the mourning of “losing” our firstborns to adulthood, we still have younger ones to tamper that grief.
By the time the younger ones are entering adulthood we’ve had more time to adapt to the reality of our new impending way of life ❤
"Simple living alaska " has a new video out that will show you how they do their chickens this year in the freezing cold 😉🥶 I personally try to hibernate in front of the wood stove when not at work. -20c today (Sweden) I miss Oregon! ( and my daughter)🥶🤪
UM DIA MARAVILHOSO PARA VOCÊ 🙏🏻👏🏻
Heated element in the water troughs and/or carrying water from the house.
We are in NH, only have chickens and rabbits outside, we haul water. Also have a heated water bowl for chickens. We have a water line for our greenhouse, it’s buried, but not deep enough not to freeze. It’s turned off in the winter. I was melting snow to water baby greenhouse plants last spring. I’m insanely jealous of your 100 degree greenhouse. I hate the cold. Definitely a frost tender flower. Lol
I'm in Vermont. We do have water in our barn but it is fed from our house. So we have a turn on in the basement. In the winter, probably twice a week we turn it on, fill up troughs and extra buckets, clean buckets as well. Then it needs to be opened up and drained back into five gallon buckets in the basement. The other days I use recycled cat litter jugs that get filled with hot water in the bath tub and tote them up hill to the barn twice a day. Yup. It's work. But at this very moment, although I don't love winter, this year was so wet and muddy here I am happy to have solid ground instead of mud.
Fern Gully! Wow I haven’t talked about that movie in so long I started to think I imagined it 😂 we just moved from Wyoming to Georgia, I think we may have accidentally brought the cold with us 🥶 stay warm!
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My babies moved out a few years ago. Last week one of them told me that she is expecting her own baby. I was starting to really miss her. Then she tells me that I will be back in the baby stage all over again. I am so proud of her. My kids are The first Tripp's to graduate. And the first Tripp to wait until they have a have everything a baby needs before having a baby.